Navy awards $32.8M deal for tactical radios

By Defense Systems Staff

Sep 20, 2016

The Navy has awarded Raytheon Secure Information Systems a $32.8million contract to provide secure radios to U.S. and allied forces.

The deal calls for NATO Improved Link Eleven/Link 22 Modernized Link Level COMSEC (LLC 7M) production and sustainment. NATO Improved Link Eleven, known as NILE, is an effort to develop and implement interoperable Link 22 radio systems with other nations. The contract calls for using the radios in airborne, surface, subsurface and ground-based applications by the United States and NILE nations, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and Spain, and other countries approved for Foreign Military Sales, according to a contract announcement from the Defense Department.

The NILE/Link 22 Modernized Link Level COMSEC, or NILE LLC 7M, is a cryptographic system certified by the National Security Agency. NILE/Link 22, which was officially adopted in 2015, works in the HF and UHF bands, and swerves as a complement to the Link 16 joint radios used widely by the Navy, Army, Air Force and allies. Last year, the Navy awarded nearly $881 million in contracts for the jam-resistant radios that supple digital data and voice services.